Sound and the Fury Essay: Style / Character Analysis
William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is a compelling story about the Compson family, mainly revolving around the four siblings Quentin, Caddy, Jason and, Benjy. However, the book is told by each of the four characters except Caddy, Dilsey tells the last section of the book. Faulkner’s different use of style in each characters section of the novel is based upon each characters different personality in the novel.
The first section in the novel is Benjy’s. Benjamin Compson, is severely retarded, and the whole section is written from his standpoint in the novel. Benjy can't interpret what is going on and doesn't understand the connection between cause and effect. But in simple sentences, most concerned with how things look, and smell, Benjy manages to tell one a lot about what is going on. An example of Benjy’s style can be seen in “They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit” (3). One may not understand what Benjy is talking about until one reads the story, however Benjy is describing a game of golf when he and Luster go out looking for quarters on the golf course. Benjy gives a good description of what the game of golf would look like if it were not understood by a person. Another example of Benjy’s style in the novel is “Caddy was all wet and muddy behind, and I started to cry and she came and squatted in the water. “hush now.” She said. “I’m not going to run away.” So I hushed. Caddy smelled like trees in the rain” (19). Benjy goes into a time change describing how Caddy looked and smelled playing in the pasture when they were kids. Given Benjy’s state of mental retardation, Faulkner uses a simplistic style of short descriptive sentences that gives the reader a visual perception of what’s going on in the novel, however the reader may not understand what Benjy is describing until the reader has understood the book as a whole.
The second section in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is Quentin’s. Quentin is extremely intelligent, a Harvard student, his mind works much more quickly and frequently with time shifts than Benjy’s. An example of Quentin’s...